🚀 go-pugleaf

in article <154@dsacg2.UUCP>, nor1675@dsacg2.UUCP (Michael Figg) says:
> Xref: killer comp.sys.amiga:15018 comp.sys.misc:1221 comp.sys.ibm.pc:13428 comp.sys.mac:13614 comp.sys.atari.st:7772
> In article <971@uop.edu>, exodus@uop.edu (G.Onufer) writes:
>> Shareware is a great concept except for one small detail.  It relies on
>> the honesty of the participants.  In European countries, that wouldn't be
>> so bad (at least from my experiences...I have lived in Europe for 13 years).
>> In America, piracy has turned the software (and even the hardware industry
>> with IBM PC clones) industry inside out.  ..........
>      As far as the honest europeans goes though I beg to differ. It seems that 
>      much of the pirated software that I have seen (not my own, of course!) has
>      been cracked in europe. And where do think the Swiss Cracking Association
>      is from. I just read this morning in a recent copy of AC that the new
>      revision to PageSetter was pass-word protected because european dealers
>      would not sell it without protection because of the problem with piracy
>      in europe. Of course we are not quite perfect here either yet :-).

Pirating occurs for a number of inter-related reasons:

1) the "welfare" state, which encourages people to think that they have a
"right" to copy software that they cannot afford (similiar to their "right" to
low-cost or housing, etc.).

2) Someone needs a job done, can't afford to buy the software to do it, and
out of desperation and 1) above, they copy the software.

3) Bureacracy. In almost every government office I've ever seen, it takes over
6 months between requisition and aquisition, due to public bid laws and other
such well-meaning nonsense. Large companies are almost as bad (e.g. the oil
companies back in 80-81, before the oil crash... the only way anything ever
got done, was when the grunts in the field ignored the rules and did it,
instead of going through 15 layers of bureaucracy). Combined with 2) and 1)
above, probably a major explanation of corporate and government pirating.

And finally, there's your hard-core "collectors". The distribution network of
pirateware. I don't think I need to say too much about them.... who knows? Why
would someone would buy 200 blanks per month, to fill up with programs he'll
never use? 

Note that Europe has all 3 the above (especially the welfare mentality and the
lack of money), so it's no wonder that Europeans steal software.

As for the honesty/shareware issue, it may very well be that shareware would
work better in Europe than it does here... but somehow, I doubt it.

--
Eric Lee Green  elg@usl.CSNET     Asimov Cocktail,n., A verbal bomb
{cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg              detonated by the mention of any
Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191              subject, resulting in an explosion
Lafayette, LA 70509                    of at least 5,000 words.